On Sat, 22 May 2004, Alex J Burke wrote:

> Does anybody know of a fix for nothing appearing on the 3215 console when
> debian is booted? Maybe it is just the copy I have, but if networking isnt
> working AND I cant see anything makes it kinda hard to maintain.

Is this a system you previously had working, or an installation boot?  If 
it's a previously working system, I'd guess that you ran zilo/zipl and 
removed critical parameters from the boot data.

There are at least two critical kernel parameters needed to boot on a
P/390.  The first tells Linux to avoid the compulsory HSA at the end of
physical storage: if you have a 128MB card, you need "mem=124M" on your
parmline (without the quotes).  The other overrides the default automatic
detection of console device (which doesn't work on a P/390 without VM).  
Add "condev=0009" (replacing 0009 with your real 3215 console device, and
remembering it's a decimal value, so use 0x001F or 0031 for a console at
001F).

There's some notes w.r.t. the old SuSE 7 GA at 
http://linuxvm.org/penguinvm/p390/

> Generally, what do people think is the best linux to run on a P/390? I am
> really talking free ones, so I guess that’s the old Red Hat 7.2, Debian or
> the SuSE 31bit BETA that you can still download.

If you can get Debian to boot and install, I'd go with that.  It will be
the most current free one you can get other than TAO and Gentoo (which
I've not played with, but I think both need an existing driver system to
install).

> Lastly, are the Red Hat and SuSE linux versions aboe to show somehing on the
> 3215 console?

Sure, just the same as they do running under VM and using the virtual
3215.  On a P/390 they just need to be told where to find it, that's all.  
;)

Cheers,
Vic Cross

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